The present invention relates to a glove box which is for use in a vehicle and is provided at an opening portion of an instrument panel facing a passenger compartment within the vehicle.
The present application claims priority from Japanese Application No. 2002-001407, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Conventionally, there has been known a glove box of a type which includes a main body made of resin and provided pivotally to the instrument panel facing the passenger compartment, and a lid portion made of resin and provided to the main body on the interior side thereof, forming a closed section with the interior face of the main body.
The glove box of this type is provided with a metal reinforcing member in a space between the main body and the lid portion. The reinforcing member is fastened to the main body with fastening means, such as screws. In this way, the reinforcing member enables the glove box to have a desired rigidity and a desired strength.
The glove box of this type, however, has a problem that fastening the reinforcing member to the main body with screws or the like complicates a process of assembling the glove box and hence imposes a heavy burden on an operator (worker) in charge of assembling operations.
The present invention is devised in order to solve above-mentioned problems, and therefore, has an object to provide a glove box which can be assembled through a simple and easy assembling operation and thereby reduce a burden on an operator (worker) in charge of assembling operations.
In order to achieve above and other objects, a first aspect of the present invention provides the glove box for use in a vehicle and adapted to be able to open and close at an opening portion of an instrument panel facing a passenger compartment within the vehicle, comprising: a main body movably provided to the instrument panel; a lid portion provided to the main body on an interior side and forming a closed section with an interior side of the main body; and a reinforcing member extending in a width direction of the main body. Specifically, a plurality of supporting portions are provided to the main body on the interior side thereof, thereby forming protrusions extending toward the interior side for supporting a peripheral face of the reinforcing member.
According to the first aspect of the invention, the operator (worker) can assemble the glove box in a simple and easy manner by fitting the lid portion to the main body after having the respective supporting portions support the reinforcing member.
Also, since a peripheral surface of the reinforcing member is supported by the respective support portions at several positions, the reinforcing member can be provided to the main body to form an integral structure.
Hence, the burden to the operator for assembling the glove box can be reduced. In other words, for example, it goes without saying that the present invention makes it possible to omit complicated operations, such as fastening many screws during the assembling, which are otherwise essential in the aforementioned prior art where the reinforcing member is fastened to the main body with the screws. Moreover, a total number of components can be reduced by omitting components used for fastening the screws.
Also, since the reinforcing member is provided to the main body to form an integral structure, it is possible to largely improve the rigidity and the strength of the glove box. In other words, there would not be a problem that the reinforcing member fits to the main body only in the vicinity of the portions fastened with the screws, resulting in a reinforcing member failing to have an enough rigidity (where the problem will occur as the reinforcing member is fastened to the main body with screws).
A second aspect of the present invention provides a glove box, in which each support portion of the main body is given with a tilt in a direction to be spaced apart from the reinforcing member toward the interior; and in which the peripheral surface of the reinforcing member is given with the same tilt as that of the support portions, the tilt being toward the interior in correspondence with the tilt given to each support portion.
According to the second aspect of the invention, in addition to advantages of the first aspect, since the tilt is given to both the peripheral surface of the reinforcing member and the respective support portions of the main body, the operator can fit therein forcing member to the main body from the interior side in a simple and easy manner when the glove box is assembled. Also, once being fit together, the peripheral surface of the reinforcing member and the respective support portions of the main body are in close contact with each other, thus exactly fastening the reinforcing member to the main body.
Therefore, it is possible to further reduce the burden to the operator when the glove box is assembled. Also, since the reinforcing member is in close contact with the main body, the reinforcing member and the main body deform simultaneously as one unit. Hence, when a load is applied to the glove box, the reinforcing member and the main body can together resist the load effectively. In other words, as compared with the type that the reinforcing member and the main body are not in close contact with each other, the rigidity and the strength of the glove box of the present invention can be improved remarkably.
A third aspect of the invention provides the glove box, in which the main body, the reinforcing member, and the lid portion are all made of a resin material and assembled integrally by welding to one another.
According to the third aspect of the invention, in addition to the advantages of the first or second aspect, the operator can at first fit the reinforcing member to the main body, then fit the lid portion to the main body, followed by welding together these components so as to form an integral structure, by such a method as a heat treatment.
In this way, the glove box may be molded integrally, which makes it possible to largely improve the rigidity and the strength of the glove box.
A fourth aspect of the invention provides the glove box in which the reinforcing member is formed into a grid-like structure having pores extending in the thickness direction thereof.
According to the fourth aspect of the invention, in addition to the advantages of any one of the first through third aspects, by forming therein forcing member into the grid-like structure having pores in the thickness direction, the reinforcing member can be reduced in weight without lowering the strength of the reinforcing member with respect to a compression force to the thickness direction.
Accordingly, even when the load is applied from the passenger to the reinforcing member substantially in the compressing direction when the passenger body hits the glove box at a time of a vehicle collision, the glove box can support the passenger in a suitable manner, and there is no trouble in the safety in the event of a vehicle crash. Also, a reduction in weight of therein forcing member can reduce not only the burden to the operator when the glove box is assembled, but also the weight of the glove box, and hence, the weight of the vehicle can also be effectively reduced.
A fifth aspect of the invention provides a glove box in which the reinforcing member is provided with bonding portions to be connected with the lid portion, the bonding portions being formed on one side of the reinforcing member and facing the lid portion.
According to the fifth aspect of the invention, in addition to the advantages of the fourth aspect, by connecting the bonding portions of the reinforcing member with the lid portion, the reinforcing member can be fastened to the lid portion.
Provided that the reinforcing member used includes bonding portions of the same shape, even when a reinforcing member has a grid structure of a different shape and a different grid interval, the magnitude of the reaction force or the like acting on the lid portion will be substantially the same everywhere because of the connection with the reinforcing member (by virtue of the bonding portions), and the deformation of the lid portion will also be the same everywhere when the glove box is assembled. In short, even when a different reinforcing member is used, it is possible to manufacture the glove box having substantially the same outward appearance.
Therefore, by connecting the bonding portions of the reinforcing member with the lid portion, fastening the grid-like reinforcing member to the lid portion can be made exactly, thus making it possible to further improve the rigidity and the strength of the glove box.
Also, since the reinforcing member can be changed depending on the strength required by the glove box, the invention is quite advantageous for a practical use. Further, when a different strength is required for the glove box depending on the type of vehicle or a place of destination, a necessary operation is only to change the reinforcing member alone, while all the other components (except for the reinforcing member) can remain the same, thereby making it possible to largely reduce the manufacturing cost.
A sixth aspect of the invention provides a glove box in which the reinforcing member is provided on an upper side of the lid portion.
According to the sixth aspect of the invention, in addition to the advantages of any one of the first through fifth aspects, the reinforcing member can be reduced both in size and weight because the reinforcing member is provided to correspond not to the entire lid portion but only to the upper portion thereof.
Therefore, when a passenger is forced to move forward during a vehicle collision or the like, the knees of the passenger will hit the upper side of the lid portion, so that a load from the passenger will act on the glove box from the upper side of the lid portion. In other words, the load applied from the passenger acts on the glove box directly at the portion where the reinforcing member is provided.
Thus, when the operator assembles the glove box, he or she only has to fit a light and compact reinforcing member into the main body, so that the burden to the operator can be reduced further. Also, a reduction of the reinforcing member in the size and weight can reduce the manufacturing cost and the weight of the vehicle.
In addition, the glove box can efficiently receive a load from the passenger during the vehicle collision, thereby rendering the invention quite advantageous in terms of the safety performance.
A seventh aspect of the invention provides a glove box in which the reinforcing member is formed in such a manner that the size in the thickness direction is lessened in a downward direction.
According to the seventh aspect of the invention, in addition to the advantages of any one of the first through sixth aspects, the reinforcing member can be reduced in weight because the dimension in the thickness direction of the reinforcing member is smaller at the lower side.
Accordingly, when the passenger is forced to move forward during a vehicle collision or the like, the knees of the passenger hit the upper side of the lid portion, and the load from the passenger acts on the glove box from the upper side of the lid portion. In other words, the load applied from the passenger acts on the glove box directly at the portion where the reinforcing member has a larger size in the thickness direction than others.
Besides, when the operator assembles the glove box, he or she only has to fit a light reinforcing member into the main body, so that the burden to the operator can be thus reduced. Also, the reduction of the reinforcing member in the weight can reduce the manufacturing cost and the weight of the vehicle.
In addition, the glove box can efficiently receive the load from the passenger at the vehicle collision or the like, thereby rendering the present invention quite advantageous in terms of safety in the event of a vehicle crash.